Minorities in Comics

You might want to check out “Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology.” The book itself is going to come out in Fall 2008, but right now they have the website and the “secret history” behind the book. It’s worth a look-see in my opinion. Website here:

http://www.secretidentities.org/Site/Secret_Identities_Homepage.html

One problem is creativity. Most of the marvel heroes are natural heroes e.g. X-men. You can’t just say they are some other race to satisfy that sort of thing. Another option is creating the token super heroes that just pop out of the wood work. So unless you just want to start over or kill off a couple of major heroes it isn’t going to be easy. How many new (within 20 years) super heroes have you seen that are any good for more than a dozen or so comics. Unless it is someone like Green Lantern that is part of an organization with the same powers and names you can’t capitalize on the name value which is what sells a lot of comics now.

Out of curiosity, how many of the writers in the comic book industry are minorities? I mean, the primary authors. I admit, I’m not a huge fan of the American comic book. Part of it is racial, part of it is art style (muscles that have muscles that have muscles…?), part is the target audience.

People tend to write about what they know, or what they’re familiar with, or comfortable with writing. Most people aren’t comfortable with writing about an ethnic group they’re not actually part of. What if they step on some toes? What if they’re not “sensitive” enough to cultural nuances? That’s how I look at it, anyway, in all branches of the entertainment world. If I considered anything else, I might just cry myself to sleep in a dark corner. This is in terms of managing to create a new, long reaching series, rather than tacking Tokens onto existing Caucasian themed series.

To be fair about Shang-chi, the character was basically created in the seventies to capitalize on the kung-fu craze. He’s a ripoff of Bruce Lee in many ways, but that goes to show how popular and charismatic Bruce Lee was. That said, the fact that the character’s father was literally Fu Manchu and has now been retconned to be, I kid you not, a villain named The Yellow Claw, and that and Shang has never, to my knowledge, been expanded into the larger Marvel universe does reek of sloppy exploitative writing.

The ultimate Shang-chi has gotten a slightly better treatment by being teamed up with Iron Fist, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man in the Ultimate Spider-Man Marvel Knights storyline. He kicked reasonable amounts of ass.

Here’s two that were not mention, but I feel have earned their dues: Jubilation Lee and Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi). And both were made in 1986 and ’85 respectivly, making them barely older than twenty. Relatively new, and treated as exactly what they are: heros (though Juilee is treated as a kid in the 90’s, but we won’t hold that against the writers, she was still just a kid then).

One that you mentioned, but not as a minority, is Forge. There’s also Bishop from that era of Xmen.

The New Xmen have 3, one the leader: Surge (Noriko Ashida), Dust (Sooraya Qadir), Prodigy (David Alleyne). They’re all new, but being in a team of new characters gives them an equal chance at gaining a fan base.

As to Storm and Black Panther, they’re not just both black, they’re both African. If you’re from there, that’s strong commonality that transcends race. They’re also both revered as close to divinity by their respective people which means they can understand each other’s lives better than most people.
As to time on their romance – my grandparents went from first date to wedding in four months, my parents in three. (Neither were shotgun weddings) So it does happen, especially when you have the kind of commonality that they do.